27 Aug. 1802–11 July 1878. Farmer, stock raiser, newspaper editor. Born in Pennsylvania. Son of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman. Member of German Reformed Church, Fayette, Seneca Co., New York. Baptized by Oliver Cowdery, June 1829, most likely in Seneca...

28 July 1797–23 July 1876. Carpenter, wainwright. Born at Vershire, Orange Co., Vermont. Son of Moses French Jackman and Elizabeth Carr. Moved to Batavia, Genesee Co., New York, 1810. Married first Angeline Myers Brady, 13 Nov. 1817, at Alexander, Genesee...

5 Nov. 1797–29 Dec. 1867. Farmer. Born in Madison Co., Kentucky. Son of John Groves and Mary Hurd. Moved to Indiana, 1819. Married first Sarah Hogue, ca. 1825, in Indiana. Member of Presbyterian church. Baptized into LDS church by Calvin Beebe, 1 Mar. 1832...

10 Jan. 1803–3 Jan. 1877. Clergyman, gardener. Born in New York. Son of John Parrish and Ruth Farr. Married first Elizabeth (Betsey) Patten of Westmoreland Co., New Hampshire, ca. 1822. Lived at Alexandria, Jefferson Co., New York, 1830. Purchased land at...

1800–1868. Farmer. Born in New York. Married first Keziah. Lived at Warsaw, Genesee Co., New York, 1830. Participated in Camp of Israel expedition to Missouri, 1834. Served as a president of First Quorum of the Seventy, 1835–1837. Moved to Kirtland, Geauga...

12 Apr. 1809–2 Nov. 1865. Farmer, cooper. Born in Oxford, New Haven Co., Connecticut. Son of Gideon Riggs and Susan Pitcher. Moved to Kirtland, Geauga Co., Ohio, by 1820. Served as election clerk, 8 Sept. 1830, in Kirtland. Baptized into LDS church by 15 ...

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...

7 Feb. 1794–23/25 Aug. 1841. Sheriff, church agent. Born at Phelps, Ontario Co., New York. Son of Pierce Granger and Clarissa Trumble. Married Lydia Dibble, 8 Sept. 1813, at Phelps. Member of Methodist church and licensed exhorter. Sheriff of Ontario Co. ...

27 Aug. 1793–27 May 1840. Hatter. Born at Pittsfield, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. Son of William Partridge and Jemima Bidwell. Moved to Painesville, Geauga Co., Ohio. Married Lydia Clisbee, 22 Aug. 1819, at Painesville. Initially a Universal Restorationist...

28 May 1795–26 Oct. 1872. Farmer, carpenter. Born in Manlius, Onondaga Co., New York. Son of Amos Stanton and Elizabeth Wyman. Moved to Pompey, Onondaga Co., by 1800. Married Clarinda Graves, 16 Mar. 1816. Moved to Mayfield, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, by 1820. Moved...

21 Dec. 1784–25 June 1855. Pastor, farmer. Born in New Hampshire. Married first Oliva Swanson of Massachusetts. Resided at Portsmouth, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire, 1808. Lived in Vermont. Moved to northern Pennsylvania, 1817. Served as minister in Freewill...

27 Aug. 1802–11 July 1878. Farmer, stock raiser, newspaper editor. Born in Pennsylvania. Son of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman. Member of German Reformed Church, Fayette, Seneca Co., New York. Baptized by Oliver Cowdery, June 1829, most likely in Seneca...

28 July 1797–23 July 1876. Carpenter, wainwright. Born at Vershire, Orange Co., Vermont. Son of Moses French Jackman and Elizabeth Carr. Moved to Batavia, Genesee Co., New York, 1810. Married first Angeline Myers Brady, 13 Nov. 1817, at Alexander, Genesee...

5 Nov. 1797–29 Dec. 1867. Farmer. Born in Madison Co., Kentucky. Son of John Groves and Mary Hurd. Moved to Indiana, 1819. Married first Sarah Hogue, ca. 1825, in Indiana. Member of Presbyterian church. Baptized into LDS church by Calvin Beebe, 1 Mar. 1832...

10 Jan. 1803–3 Jan. 1877. Clergyman, gardener. Born in New York. Son of John Parrish and Ruth Farr. Married first Elizabeth (Betsey) Patten of Westmoreland Co., New Hampshire, ca. 1822. Lived at Alexandria, Jefferson Co., New York, 1830. Purchased land at...

1800–1868. Farmer. Born in New York. Married first Keziah. Lived at Warsaw, Genesee Co., New York, 1830. Participated in Camp of Israel expedition to Missouri, 1834. Served as a president of First Quorum of the Seventy, 1835–1837. Moved to Kirtland, Geauga...

12 Apr. 1809–2 Nov. 1865. Farmer, cooper. Born in Oxford, New Haven Co., Connecticut. Son of Gideon Riggs and Susan Pitcher. Moved to Kirtland, Geauga Co., Ohio, by 1820. Served as election clerk, 8 Sept. 1830, in Kirtland. Baptized into LDS church by 15 ...

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...

7 Feb. 1794–23/25 Aug. 1841. Sheriff, church agent. Born at Phelps, Ontario Co., New York. Son of Pierce Granger and Clarissa Trumble. Married Lydia Dibble, 8 Sept. 1813, at Phelps. Member of Methodist church and licensed exhorter. Sheriff of Ontario Co. ...

27 Aug. 1793–27 May 1840. Hatter. Born at Pittsfield, Berkshire Co., Massachusetts. Son of William Partridge and Jemima Bidwell. Moved to Painesville, Geauga Co., Ohio. Married Lydia Clisbee, 22 Aug. 1819, at Painesville. Initially a Universal Restorationist...

28 May 1795–26 Oct. 1872. Farmer, carpenter. Born in Manlius, Onondaga Co., New York. Son of Amos Stanton and Elizabeth Wyman. Moved to Pompey, Onondaga Co., by 1800. Married Clarinda Graves, 16 Mar. 1816. Moved to Mayfield, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio, by 1820. Moved...

21 Dec. 1784–25 June 1855. Pastor, farmer. Born in New Hampshire. Married first Oliva Swanson of Massachusetts. Resided at Portsmouth, Rockingham Co., New Hampshire, 1808. Lived in Vermont. Moved to northern Pennsylvania, 1817. Served as minister in Freewill...

On 12 February 1834
JS held a council meeting with high priests and
elders at his home in
Kirtland

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...

,
Ohio. To those gathered he observed, “I shall now endeavor to set forth before
this council, the dignity of the office which has been conferred upon me by the
ministering of the Angel of God, by his own will and by the voice of this
church. I have never set before any council in all the order in which a council
ought to be conducted, which, perhaps, has deprived the councils of some, or
many blessings.” Along with other instructions, JS related that “in ancient
days, councils were conducted with such strict propriety, that no one was
allowed to whisper, be weary, leave the room, or get uneasy in the least, until
the voice of the Lord, by revelation, or the voice of the council by the spirit
was obtained; which has not been observed in this church to the present.”
(Minute Book 1,
12 Feb. 1834, 27–29.)

The record of
this occasion is one of many found in Minute Book 1, also known as the
“Kirtland Council Minute Book” or the “Kirtland High Council Minutes.” This and
its companion, Minute Book 2 (also known as the “Far West Record”), are
now published as part of the Administrative Records series on this website.
These volumes illuminate many of the principles and practices that ordered
early church governance and administration. They illustrate the early Saints’
determination to respond to revelation and divine guidance while simultaneously
acknowledging the doctrine of common consent. Furthermore, these records
demonstrate
JS’s personal endorsement of and participation in
a conference or council system of church government.

Entries for
various conferences and councils recorded in Minute Book 1 stand as witness to
several seminal events in early church history. Among these were the receipt of
the revelation known as the “Olive Leaf” in
late December 1832 and early
January 1833; the organization of the
School of the Prophets on
22–23 January 1833; the
ordination of
Sidney
Rigdon

19 Feb. 1793–14 July 1876. Tanner, farmer, minister. Born at St. Clair, Allegheny Co., Pennsylvania. Son of William Rigdon and Nancy Gallaher. Joined United Baptists, ca. 1818. Preached at Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio, and vicinity, 1819–1821. Married Phebe...

as presidents of
the high priesthood on 18 March 1833;
revelations concerning construction of the
Kirtland

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...

JS revelation, dated Jan. 1831, directed Latter-day Saints to migrate to Ohio, where they would “be endowed with power from on high.” In Dec. 1832, JS revelation directed Saints to “establish . . . an house of God.” JS revelation, dated 1 June 1833, chastened...

; the organization of the first
standing high council in
February 1834; church courts held in the
aftermath of the Camp of Israel (Zion’s Camp) march in August 1834; the calling,
ordination, and blessing
of the Twelve Apostles and the Seventies in February
1835; the
acceptance by the church
of the 1835 Doctrine
and Covenants in August of that year;
preparation for the dedication of the Kirtland House of the Lord in
winter and early spring 1836;
and events related to the Kirtland Safety Society, its demise, and the
concomitant dissension within the Kirtland stake of Zion in
1837. Some of these minutes, especially those
where JS was a participant in the meeting, will also
appear with individual introductions in the Documents series of The
Joseph Smith Papers.

In the texts of
the various minute entries, and occasionally in separate entries accompanying
them, the register records ordinations, blessings, disciplinary councils,
testimonies, Pentecostal outpourings, callings and releases, missionary
appointments, and fund-raising activities. Thus, Minute Book 1 provides a rich
survey of
JS’s interactions with associates and others
during many dramatic, and often challenging, episodes
beginning in October 1832 and
concluding in November 1837. Sixteen different clerks took original
minutes that were later copied into the volume by
Frederick G. Williams

3 Oct. 1806–3 Mar. 1850. Clerk, teacher, justice of the peace, lawyer, newspaper editor. Born at Wells, Rutland Co., Vermont. Son of William Cowdery and Rebecca Fuller. Raised Congregationalist. Moved to western New York and clerked at a store, ca. 1825–1828...

Minute Book 1
was initiated during a remarkable upsurge in record keeping, beginning with the
calling of
Oliver
Cowdery

3 Oct. 1806–3 Mar. 1850. Clerk, teacher, justice of the peace, lawyer, newspaper editor. Born at Wells, Rutland Co., Vermont. Son of William Cowdery and Rebecca Fuller. Raised Congregationalist. Moved to western New York and clerked at a store, ca. 1825–1828...

27 Aug. 1802–11 July 1878. Farmer, stock raiser, newspaper editor. Born in Pennsylvania. Son of Peter Whitmer Sr. and Mary Musselman. Member of German Reformed Church, Fayette, Seneca Co., New York. Baptized by Oliver Cowdery, June 1829, most likely in Seneca...

Area acquired by U.S. in Louisiana Purchase, 1803, and established as territory, 1812. Missouri Compromise, 1820, admitted Missouri as slave state, 1821. Population in 1830 about 140,000; in 1836 about 240,000; and in 1840 about 380,000. Mormon missionaries...

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...

worked together on
a brief history of JS’s early visionary experiences. JS purchased the small
volume that contains his
first journal
in November 1832 and began penning entries that
same month. That fall another
record, containing retained copies of early church correspondence and now
designated Letterbook 1, was commenced. In January of the following year, in an
epistle recorded in
Letterbook 1, JS wrote to
William W. Phelps

encouraging him as editor of
the church’s first periodical, The Evening and the Morning Star,
then printed in
Jackson County

Settled at Fort Osage, 1808. County created, 16 Feb. 1825; organized 1826. Named after U.S. president Andrew Jackson. Featured fertile lands along Missouri River and was Santa Fe Trail departure point, which attracted immigrants to area. Area of county reduced...

, Missouri, to
set “forth the rise and progress and faith of the church,” that is, to begin
publishing items on the history of the church.

This upwelling
was quite unusual for the time. As scholar Dean C. Jessee has observed, “So
primitive were some aspects of record keeping in nineteenth-century America
that much of the early Latter-day Saint experience was a pioneering effort. . .
. Although Mormon record keeping was inaugurated by [an] 1830 revelation,
details for carrying out that commandment were largely hammered out on the
anvil of experience in the years that followed.” (Dean C. Jessee, “The
Reliability of Joseph Smith’s History,” Journal of Mormon
History 3 [1976]: 27.) Thus, during a brief span in the
early 1830s,
JS, along with those working under his direction,
commenced the systematic collection and recording of critical documents
pertaining to church governance and administration. Throughout the remainder of
JS’s lifetime minute-taking, revelation-recording, correspondence-copying,
journal-keeping, and history-writing activities would remain imperative
commitments.

Medium-size
blank book. The paper, which is ruled with thirty-four blue-green horizontal
lines (now faded), measures 12 × 7½ inches (30 × 19 cm). The book originally
contained 149 leaves, consisting of twelve gatherings of twelve leaves each,
two front flyleaves, and three back flyleaves. The text block is sewn all along
over recessed cords. The front and back covers of the volume are pasteboard.
The book has a tight-back case binding with a brown calfskin quarter-leather
binding, the bound volume measuring 12⅜ × 7¾ × 1 inches (31 × 20 × 3 cm). The
outside covers are adorned with shell marbled paper, with a red, green, and
black body and veins of black. The back pastedown bears the inscriptions “c”,
“c/i”, and “pep”—possibly original merchandising notes.

A single
leaf—the conjugate of the leaf bearing pages 15 and 16—was removed from the
first gathering of the book, but this occurred before the adjacent leaves were
inscribed or paginated. Page 1 is the first lined page. Minutes were inscribed
in the book on pages 1–219 and 226–265. Pages 220–225 were left blank, except
for their page numbers. Following page 265, the remaining twenty-one pages and
the three back flyleaves were left blank. At some point,
Frederick G. Williams

but never completed; this table
of contents is inscribed on all four pages of the two front flyleaves. The
minute book was kept with quill pens. The entries and pagination were inscribed
in ink that is now brown. Pages 39–55 include entry-dividing lines inscribed in
red ink. There is also residue from an adhesive wafer on pages 156 and 157,
indicating a sheet of paper was attached there at one time.

At some point, probably in the
early 1840s, the front cover of the
volume was labeled “Conference | A” in black ink. The “A” is written in a
formal style that matches the covers of other early manuscript books in the
CHL’s holdings. Copy notes and use marks, in¬scribed in graphite, were made by
later scribes who used the minute book when compiling
JS’s 1838–1856 history. At some point, probably in Utah, a
white paper label was pasted on the spine; the label is now only partially
extant, with the remaining inscription illegible. Another white paper label,
also only partially extant, was pasted over this. It reads: “Kirtland Coun”.
The rest of the label, which would have included approximately two more words,
is missing. The pastedown on the inside of the book’s front cover bears an
archival identification number inscribed in black ink and a more recent
Historian’s Office library sticker. The spine also bears a more recent sticker
with an identification number. Ink has bled through on several of the pages.
The book has also suffered some wear and staining in the front and back.

The volume is listed in the 1846
Historian’s Office inventory as “Book of Conference A” and
referred to as a
Kirtland

Located ten miles south of Lake Erie. Settled by 1811. Organized by 1818. Population in 1830 about 55 Latter-day Saints and 1,000 others; in 1838 about 2,000 Saints and 1,200 others; in 1839 about 100 Saints and 1,500 others. Mormon missionaries visited township...

High Council record in subsequent Historian’s Office inventories from the
1850s. In 1988, the Church History Department
transferred Minute Book 1 to the First Presidency’s Office. The minute book was transferred to the Church History
Library in 2009. Archival records and the markings
mentioned above indicate continuous institutional custody.

Sixteen
different clerks took down the original minutes that were later copied into
Minute Book 1, which was begun as part of a new effort in more permanent church
record keeping. It appears that the book was begun in
early December 1832,
about two weeks after JS began his own personal journal and apparently began
keeping a letterbook in which to copy outgoing correspondence. Frederick G.
Williams began the minute book, which was later continued by Warren A. Cowdery
and others in Ohio. Entries in the minute book are occasionally out of
chronological order. The entries for October 1832–January 1833 were inscribed by Williams.
None of these were inscribed before 3 December
1832, the date of the first entry in the book. However, the uneven
copying style of the early entries suggests that the book was an active
register beginning in early December, with original minutes being regularly
copied into the book as they came to hand. In addition to minutes, the volume
also contains scattered notes on matters related to the church affairs
addressed in the minutes.